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like-a-bag-of-potatoes · 4 years

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Chapter One - Hello Chicago

A/N: So this is my first crack at Chicago fire fanfiction, so don't judge too hard, alright? This will unfold from the beginning of season three, so if you haven't watched it yet, but plan to; SPOILER ALERT! I tried to follow along with the storyline of the show, but some things have been changed. Shout out to my superawesome beta @thorne93, you rock!

Fandom: Chicago Fire

Pairing: Kelly Severide x Beth (OFC)

Warnings: None.

Wordcount: 2975

Three weeks ago:

It was a beautiful summer day in Chicago, the sun was high in the sky while a warm breeze fanned the air, providing some much needed relief from the scorching sun. Beth had just moved into a cozy little apartment on West Wolcott, a seemingly friendly neighbourhood that she hadn't really had the time to explore yet. One thing she had noticed though, was the little bar on the corner, Molly’s. It reminded her of the last place she worked at back in New York before she picked up her life and headed for the windy city. On this particular day, she saw a ‘help wanted’ sign on the bulletin board outside, and without thinking twice, she climbed the three steps and walked inside. A little bell above the intricate mahogany door chimed, and before it even closed behind her, three confused faces looked up at her from a table near the bar.

“Sorry, we’re closed,” the woman in the group said, offering Beth a friendly smile as she did.

“Oh…” Beth started, looking between the three of them. The woman was a beautiful latina, around Beth's age, with a kind smile. One of the men, the older one of them, looked like he was in his mid forties maybe, and the other one was around Beth's age, maybe a couple years younger. He had big brown puppy dog eyes and a thick mustache. “I just saw the help wanted sign outside, and figured I'd see if you had an application I could fill out,” she explained. “But I can come back later,” she suggested when there was no answer. It felt as though she had walked into something here. She didn't know them, but it seemed as if there was a sadness behind their smiles.

“Nonsense,” the older man exclaimed, getting to his feet. “Come sit down.”

Beth put down her groceries at the door and went to join them.

“I'm Christopher Herrmann,” he introduced, shaking Beth's hand. “That's Gabriella Dawson-” Beth shook her hand too. “And this here is Otis,” he said, patting the guy's shoulder.

“Brian,” the younger man corrected.

“Nice to meet you all. I'm Beth Andrews.”

“So you’re looking for a job?” Gabriella wondered.

“Yeah. I just moved in down the street last week, and I saw the sign upfront today,” she explained.

“You have any experience, kid?” Herrmann asked in a very prominent Chicago accent.

“I do. Spent the last ten years working as a bartender in New York. Two different nightclubs for about five years and then nearly five year's at a neighbourhood bar like this,” she explained. “Then I moved here. I have references,” she added.

“Any other work experience?” he wondered.

“Yeah. I was a paramedic with the New York Firedepartment for eight years. We were on 24 hours and off for 48, so it was easy enough to combine with other jobs.”

The three of them shared an amused look and Beth wondered if she had said something wrong.

“We all work for the CFD at house 51 here in town. Gabby is a paramedic, Herrmann and I are on truck,” Otis explained, and Beth chuckled at the coincidence.

“Paramedic for now,” Gabby corrected. “I've graduated from the academy, and hope to start fighting fires soon.”

“Really? Congrats,” Beth offered.

“Thank you,” Gabby said with a wide smile. “Are you looking to be a paramedic here in Chicago too, or?”

“Not really, no. I got injured on the job and the more time passed, the harder it was to get back to it. I made a real effort about three months ago, but the job had changed for me,” Beth tried to explain, hoping that a fellow paramedic would understand.

“Alright,” Herrmann dragged. “So why Chicago?”

“Heard you guys were hiring. Couldn't let that opportunity slip through my fingers,” Beth joked with a coy smile, looking between the three of them.

Gabby looked at the other two and nodded before looking back at Beth. “Welcome to Molly’s.”

“Really?” Beth exclaimed.

“Yep,” Herrmann confirmed. “Be here at five and we’ll get you settled in.”

***

And that was how Beth landed her job at Molly’s. A job that she absolutely loved. Never had she imagined that a simple bartender job would come with such a wide network of people and friends, but Molly’s had that family vibe to it. It was a place where firefighters, police officers, and doctors came to hang their hat and try to find a good end to an otherwise shitty day at work, or a place to celebrate the good days. She found many acquaintances during her first three weeks, but also some good friends… like Gabby.

After Beth had Gabriella and her fiancee - who was a lieutenant at firehouse 51 - Matt Casey over for dinner, Gabby had convinced her to come to the house and cook for them all, which she gladly did. One thing she had learned through her year's working at NYFD was that the fastest way to a firefighter’s heart was through their stomachs.

Firehouse 51 was still mourning the loss of one of their paramedics, Leslie Shay, who had died on the job just a few weeks before Beth rolled into town. Her death still cast a shadow over the place, but they were all trying to get back to normal. A normal that would be hard to find before the lieutenant of Squad 3 came back from his furlough. Kelly Severide had been Shay’s best friend, and the one that took her death the hardest. No one had seen or heard from him since Shay’s funeral, and they were all starting to wonder if he would ever return to the station at all.

Beth hoped that a good meal would help cheer them up a bit, even if it was just for a little while.

“This smells amazing, Beth,” Cruz complimented as he hovered over her in the kitchen. “Where did you learn to cook?”

“Yeah… Tell them the story,” Gabby said with a chuckle, not looking up from the magazine she was flipping through.

“Alright,” Beth dragged, very aware that all eyes were on her all of a sudden. “I was dating this guy back when I was nineteen. He was a really nice guy, but I didn't really see it lasting very long, so when Valentine’s rolled around I didn't want to splurge on a big fancy gift for him. So I got him a pen,” she started explaining.

“You gave a guy a pen for valentines day?” Cruz asked with raised brows.

“Yeah - well- he was studying journalism and I had it engraved.. It was a nice pen, kay? My point is I wasn't too invested in the relationship at this point.”

“As evidenced by the pen,” Otis chimed in, earning himself a bitchface from Beth.

“But it seemed as though he was in a different place then I was at that time, so he gave me a gift certificate for cooking classes, worth about 500 dollars.”

A round of ‘aww’s’ went around the room followed by Gabby’s “Wait for it.”

“For about two seconds I felt really shitty about the 14 dollar pen I had gotten him, so I started telling him that I couldn't accept his gift. That it was too much.. Too generous. He shut me down and told me it was an investment in our future and that - and I quote - he saw real potential in me, but if we were to start a family, he needed to know that I would be able to cook for them.”

Now there was a mixture of ‘eww’s’ and ‘oh, noes,’ going through the room.

“So I took the gift certificate and left. Then I spent 6 weeks learning to cook all these delicious meals that he will never get to taste,” she concluded.

“Good for you, Beth,” Sylvie complimented. She was the newest member of the firehouse, filling Shay’s position after she died. Sylvie was a small town girl that had this sort of careful nature to her. She was very sweet though. Beth liked her a lot.

“I don't get it,” Cruz said with a puzzled look on his face. “He was planning a future with you, isn't that nice?” Coming from anyone else, this comment would probably piss Beth off, but she knew him, and knew that he didn't really mean anything by it.

“He wasn't planning a future with me, he was planning my future for me,” Beth explained. “Look… being a stay at home mom is tough work, and I admire the shit out of those who do it, but at that point I had my own aspirations and goals for my future. It was pretty clear to me that even though he knew all of this, he didn't care as long as he got the family he pictured in his mind.”

“Oh… well… when you put it like that,” Cruz said, an apologetic look on his face.

“It's alright,” Beth assured before she announced to everyone that dinner was ready, and for all of them to dig in.

***

Dinner had been a huge success and she left the house with an open invitation to come back whenever to cook for them, which was their way of telling her that she had been accepted into their little family.

Now she was back behind the bar at Molly’s, which was easily her favorite place in the world right now. Lieutenant Casey had finally been able to track down and convince Lieutenant Severide to come back to Chicago, and they had all decided to throw him a little welcome home party at Molly’s.

Gabby had already been in Beth’s ear about Kelly Severide, warning her that he was a bit of a ladies man, but Beth assured her that she wasn't interested. She was excited to meet him though, besides being a ladies man, Beth had heard a lot of great things about him.

There was a good crowd already at the bar when Kelly finally showed up. The first thing that Beth noticed was that the pictures of him at the station didn't really do him justice. However, it wasn't the ocean blue eyes, or the plump lips, or even the broad shoulders. It was the way he carried himself. Standing tall and confident in his shoes as he was welcomed into the bar with cheers and pats on the back. There were few things more attractive in a man than confidence, Beth thought to herself, but there was a really fine line between confidence and arrogance, and from where she was standing it looked as though he was on the right side of that line. There was something else that she noticed about him, something that saddened her in some inexplicable way. As soon as the charming smile fell from his lips, his expression hardened. Not in an angry or mean looking way, but more… stoic. Like a man carrying around a pain inside of him that he didn't want anyone to see. Like he was trying to hide his vulnerability by appearing unapproachable.

Beth knew that underneath all that, there was a good man. Of course she hadn't met the man yet, but she knew that from the way people spoke about him.

He didn't take a seat at the bar, instead he wedged himself in between two stools and leaned against the counter.

“This is Beth, Molly’s new bartender,” Gabby said and Beth reached over the bar to shake his hand.

“Kelly,” he said, his piercing blue eyes tracking her features. “Nice to meet you.” The hardness of his face melted away as he smiled politely at her, revealing a little gap between his front teeth. It was as though she caught a little glimpse of who he was behind the hard exterior. It was just a flash, a fraction of a second, and then it was gone again.

“You too,” she offered. “What can I get you?”

“Whiskey,” he said simply before he got roped into a conversation with Chief Boden and Casey.

Beth did her best not to stare at the man, but throughout the night she caught herself looking for him, letting her eyes linger whenever they found him while her mind wondered who this man was underneath. Already then she knew she was in trouble

“I knew it,” Gabby said suddenly into her ear. Beth hadn't even seen her approaching.

“What?” she asked, pretending she had no clue what Gabby was on about. “I'm allowed to look,” she defended when her friend sent her a knowing look.

“You’re allowed to do whatever you want to do,” Gabby said with a coy smile. “Just know what you’re getting yourself into.”

“I'm not gonna get myself into anything,” Beth assured.

“Mhm… Anyway, Matt and I are going to head home. You okay to lock up?” Gabby asked.

The bar was mostly empty now. Just Severide, Cruz, and Otis remained. “Absolutely,” Beth assured. She said goodnight to her friend and then made her way over to the three men. “Last call, boys. What can I get you?”

The level of inebriation around the table was pretty darn high, but considering this was last call and they would be out soon, Beth didn't worry about it too much. As per their request, she grabbed them each a beer and then made her way back behind the bar to start getting ready to close up.

“Hey, Beth,” Kelly suddenly called out, making her spin around. “Come have a drink with us,” he lightly demanded.

She mulled it over for a second before she poured herself a glass of ice water and went to join them.

“What's this?” Kelly asked, pointing to her glass with furrowed brows.

“Water,” she stated simply.

“You don't drink?” he asked, looking into her blue eyes.

“Not at work.” Holy shit was he gorgeous, she thought to herself as she pried her eyes off of the freckles that peppered his nose. She hadn't noticed them earlier, but now that she was so close to him, she could clearly see them. She could still feel his eyes on her when she looked away, but she did her best to ignore the warm feeling that settled in her body under his gaze.

“How are you liking Chicago so far?” Cruz asked.

“It's good,” she said with a bob of her head. “Your pizza sucks though,” she added as an afterthought.

“Oh come on,” Otis exclaimed. “Chicago style beats New York style every day of the week,” he argued, getting support from the other two.

“Uhm.. no. Deep dish pizza tastes like tomato sauce and dough, and nothing more. New York style has the perfect toppings to cheese ratio on a crunchy crust. It's perfection.”

“You’re wrong,” Cruz chimed in. “The thin crust does not support enough toppings. It's structurally unsound.” He gestured as he spoke, as if he was caught in a heated debate about the state of the world or something.

That spiraled into a half an hour long argument about pizza and toppings, ending only when Beth said that she would prove them all wrong by coming into the fire house and cooking them some real pizza. This was met with much enthusiasm.

“Alright, boys. Time to get out so I can close up,” she announced after checking the time.

“You throwing me out of my own bar?” Otis asked as they all got to their feet.

“Damn straight,” she said with a smile, trying to ignore the looks she got from the very handsome lieutenant.

“This because of the pizza thing?”

“Absolutely,” she confirmed with a playful smile.

“Never argue with the bartender,” Kelly noted.

“Exactly,” Beth agreed. “Now get out so I can get home,” she ordered.

The three men were still outside waiting for a cab when Beth locked the door behind her. From what she could tell, Kelly was trying to rope the other two into continuing the evening somewhere else, without much luck it seemed like. She felt for him, she really did. Being alone with your thoughts after losing a loved one was hard, she remembered all too vividly what that was like.

“What about you?” he said, looking at Beth. “Wanna come have some drinks with me?”

“Not even a little bit,” she said. It was a lie. She would very much like to go with him, but she knew how that would end, and tempting as it was, it wasn't really an option. “I'm gonna go home and slip into a light coma.” It seemed as though her answer surprised him, and she got the impression that he wasn't really used to getting turned down.

“Can I walk you home then? Can be scary out here at this time of night,” he tried.

“My apartment is right there-” she pointed a few houses down - “I'm sure I'll make it home before your cab gets here, so you guys can just keep an eye on me from here.”

Cruz and Otis kept their eyes to the ground, trying to not get roped into this awkward interaction. They mumbled a goodnight as Beth left them, trying to hide their smiles from the lieutenant.

“What just happened?” Kelly asked with a confused expression on his face.

“You just got shut down, bro,” Cruz explained.

“Twice,” Otis added, making the two of them laugh.

Kelly watched as Beth made her way to her building, and just as the cab pulled up, she unlocked her door. He raised his hand and gave her a small wave before he got into the backseat of the car. For a while, he had the image of her bright smile, and big eyes in his mind, but soon enough she was replaced by Shay, and grief overtook him once again.

If you want a tag, just shoot me an ASK and we’ll make that happen.

If you like what you read, press that little reblog button, maybe leave me a little comment. Feedback is a great source of inspiration for me.

#Kelly Severide #kelly severide fanfiction #kelly severide fanfic #Chicago Fire #chicago fire fanfiction #chicago fire fanfic #kelly severide x reader #PF

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slafkovskys · 4 years

Note

im sitting here thinking how cute it would be if you’re talking with shay and he reallly likes you and one day hes facetiming you while they’re on the bus and ryder keeps teasing him and it makes you giggle and shay wants to be mad but he can’t when he hesrs your laugh i-🥺

you barely made it through the door of your apartment when your phone started making the familiar noise. you grin and pull it out of your bag, sliding your thumb across the screen and locking the door as the facetime connects.

the familiar blonde headed boy’s face pops up on the screen and you can tell he’s tired, but he still has a grin on his face. you move back towards your bedroom, “i didn’t think that you’d be calling tonight.”

“why?” he asks, fixing his headphones, “i always call you after a game. it’s part of my routine.”

“i just thought you’d be knocked out or something. it was a pretty tough game,” you say, grabbing your laptop so that you could switch the call over. “one sec.”

“got something more important than me, y/l/n?” he teases and you roll your eyes.

“that’s a long list, donovan,” you shake your head and move towards your dresser. “so how’s-”

you’re interrupted by a new but familiar voice coming through the speaker, “is that y/n? shocker.”

you turn around to see a bit of ryder’s face in the screen and an annoyed looking shay. “hey ry! congrats on the goal!”

“thanks y/n. how’d your presentation go?” he asks and you raise an eyebrow knowing you hadn’t told ryder about it. he chuckles when he sees your confused face, “shay told me earlier how you were stressed about it. so, how’d you do?”

“pretty good i think. one girl didn’t do her part until, like, four this morning so i was lowkey stressed, but it went over well,” you explain and he nods.

“hey, you down to go eat when i get-”

shay shoves his brother to the side and rips out the airpod he had stolen, putting it back in his ear, “over my dead body.”

you can hear ryder’s cackling in the background as you chuckle. shay’s face softens as you speak, “he only does that because he knows it pisses you off. you’re too gullible sometimes, shay.”

“no i’m not,” he grumbled, shaking his head. “i miss you.”

“i miss you too. you’re flying back in after the game right?” you ask pulling a shirt over your head and moving over to your bed.

“yeah. you gonna pick me up or am i walking?”

“i always pick you up asshole.” you sigh and he chuckles. “play good tomorrow yeah?”

“i’ll call you before the game,” he promises, “i love you.”

“i love you too.”

“i love you more y/n!”

“ryder, i swear to god-”

#shay donovan #concepts

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haikyuu-appreciation-club · 3 years

Note

hey !! i just saw u hit 600—congratulations bubs !! ur works r so good u deserve it 🥺💘

for ur event, can i have #3 please?

im an ambivert (technically?¿) but i definitely have more introverted tendencies and prefer staying alone/with people im close to. i like staying indoors but i also love taking walks in parks/secluded areas !! im in love w/ nature and night is my fav time of the day, but im also really into just staying indoors and being with the person i love. im awkward, but once i let loose around people i trust, im really chaotic and all over the place bsndbdndv im also vv sarcastic and insulting people while hugging them is basically how i show affection HSJSGSJDB

my self-ship is shay x suna (no cute ship name unfortunately </3) and i feel like we'd be perfect for each other 🥺 my love languages r physical touch + quality time and i hc suna as a quality time type of guy <3 our relationship is really fun and chill (friends to lovers type beat). its filled with silly banter and "dumbass" and laughing when the other falls down. mignight drives js because, hitting up convenience stores at 2 am, and taking ugly pictures of each other and making fun of ourselves.

but it's also being comfortable in silence, cuddling while scrolling through our phones, softly stroking each other's hand absentmindedly, and tiny i love you's whispered sleepily. its him seeing my favorite snack and bringing some home without me asking, him picking up on my moods and being able to tell when i need space and when i need extra reassurance, me being able to tell when he needs to be held a little tighter, and knowing he's craving a certain food when his eyes linger a bit longer at it.

its him texting me updates of everything that happens in his day, and spamming me when i don't answer right away. its him being subtly pouty (its not subtle at all) when he goes too long without getting a kiss from me. its facetime calls barefaced and relaxed, not rlly caring abt how i look bc i know there's no need to (and as someone who overthinks 24/7, this is a huge thing for me).

its not needing to go to fancy restaurants for every date we have, because staying inside and watching a movie with pizza is just as good (if not better). its not having to worry or overthink about how i look or how im acting or if im being too mean or too awkward. its comfort and fun and trust and it's the type of relationship that i never want to let go of <3

i know you said to go all out but holy shit that is a lot NDGDNHDH (its actually my first time talking about my self ship hhh) i hope this is okay !! and once again congrats on 600 🥺🥺

EVENT #3

nｏｗｌｏａｄｉｎｇ . . .

——————————————————————————

...how would suna pop the question?

at first suna tried to plan a fancy proposal, figuring this was a special moment for the two of you and you deserved the best he had to offer. he tried to plan out the flowers and the dinner reservations and the extravagant gesture, but it just didn’t feel right. the two of you didn’t have a relationship where you focused on things like that. fancy restaurants and huge diamond rings weren’t who you guys were. so, one night he decided to take you on a night drive. it was spontaneous to say the least, the two of you had just finished eating takeout and rewatching one of your favorite series when he grabbed your hand a little tighter then usual and dragged you to the car. he never mentioned where the two of you were going only putting on your favorite playlist and watched as you hummed along. once you guys reached your destination, you recognized it as the place where the two of you shared your first kiss. the memory made you smile, the two of you definitely weren’t the most experienced and it wasn’t super romantic but you loved each other and didn’t mind improving in that aspect (which you definitely did). curiosity filled your mind until you felt suna pull you into a warm hug, whispering about how much he loved and cared about you before getting on one knee and pulling out a ring. you couldn’t believe you eyes but that didn’t stop you from getting on your knees and pulling him into a hug, causing suna to feel like the luckiest man on this planet.

——————————————————————————

nene’s 600 event: closed

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#nene’s 600 event !#thank you so much love :’)#i hope you enjoy !#ALSO YOUR SELF SHIP IS SO CUTE-#nene’s q!

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ptw30 · 4 years

Note

Hunk tries to teach Shiro how to cook, Shiro owes Hunk Cooking equipment.

Sorry this took so long. I originally planned to have this up for Shiro’s birthday but…life. :) Thanks for prompting!

Fic: Cupcakes and Camaraderie

Relationships: Hunk & Shiro, past Shiro/Adam

Author’s Notes: Shiro is still the Black Paladin here…cuz.

Shiro flipped on the light in the mess hall kitchen and cracked his knuckles. Making a few cupcakes shouldn’t be too hard, right? With some whipped cream and what did Adam always put on top? Graham cracker crumbles?

Whatever it was, Shiro was positive he could figure out, and since Iverson was off grounds for a few days to oversee the launch proceedings, Shiro could take all the time he wanted in the Galaxy Garrison mess.

Finding the pans proved more difficult than he thought, and did he really need to use the mixer? Maybe he could conscript the blender. Just what was the difference between a tablespoon and teaspoon? Did anyone really know?

Okay, on his tablet, he found a recipe for “easy red velvet cupcakes with vanilla icing.” Easy. It was in the title. He could totally do this.

Less than ten minutes later, Shiro found himself wiping off an egg, flour, and water mixture from his nose. Maybe he couldn’t do this. He was seventy-five percent sure the batter shouldn’t be gray-green.

“What!” a new voice screeched, causing Shiro to whirl toward the doorway. “You-You did not just destroy my kitchen!”

Shiro paused from demanding, your kitchen, but it wasn’t like Shiro knew the garrison chefs well. Then again, Shiro didn’t remember ever seeing this cadet or officer before. Dark hair, an orange wrap, and a yellow-accented Galaxy Garrison uniform – what rank did that dictate? – he seemed out of sorts, standing in the doorway, glaring Shiro down.

Shiro dropped his tablespoon – or was it a teaspoon – on instinct and raised both hands. “Look, I didn’t think anyone would notice. I was just trying to – ”

“ – paint every single surface of this place in batter, if you can even call it that!” The man stalked forward, keen eyes glaring down at the green concoction as if it personally offended him. Then he looked up at Shiro – and froze. “S-Shiro?”

“Uh…yes?” He didn’t think he’d met this person before, but ever since the Kerberos mission announcement, so many people knew his name. “I’m sorry. I don’t remember…have we met?”

“…not yet, I don’t think.” The man straightened his shoulders and rubbed the back of his hair. “I…guess that wormhole wasn’t as harmless as we thought.”

“Wormhole?” Shiro echoed.

Before he could ask the person more, the yellow-clad officer replied, “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure Allura and Pidge – um, some people I know are working on it. Anyway.” He seemed happier all of sudden, scrubbing his hands together and smirking at Shiro. “What’cha trying to do here? Don’t tell me. Muffins.”

Shiro smiled with a slight wince. “Not quite.”

“Brownies?”

“Getting warmer…sorta.”

The man huffed loudly. “Please tell me you weren’t trying to make cupcakes. You have pepper in this!”

Shiro glanced away. “I couldn’t find the salt.”

“No, nope. Uh-huh. This cannot happen.” He pointed a sharp finger at a stool near the counter. “You sit over there while I clean up the mess and make a proper set of cupcakes.”

“Can’t I help –”

“No!” The officer sucked a quick breath, offered a gentle smile, and patted Shiro twice on the shoulder. “I mean, thanks for the offer, but why don’t you watch me work for a sec and tell me why you were trying to make some cupcakes? I’m Hunk, by the way.”

“Shiro.” Shiro took his designated seat and plopped his chin upon his fist. “Had a craving. My…uh, ex used to make them for me, but…he’s now my ex, so…”

Hunk began to measure out the ingredients – eggs, milk, butter, flour, salt, and vanilla – and nodded along. “Hard after something like that. What happened…uh, if you don’t mind me asking.”

“I’m, uh.” Shiro looked away, unsure why he felt comfortable explaining to Hunk this situation. It wasn’t like the entire garrison hadn’t been gossiping about it for the last week. “I was chosen for the Kerberos mission.”

“Oh, right! I’d heard that. Congrats, man! That’s awesome. Not sure why that means you have an ex. Isn’t he happy for you? Proud?”

“He didn’t want me to go. And I’m going, so…”

Hunk glanced around the room – looking for what, Shiro couldn’t tell – before reaching for a larger bowl with high walls to pour his current mixture into. “I’m sorry to hear that. Relationships can be hard. My girlfriend and I, we’re positioned on different sides of the…world. It’s hard to send a transmission to her sometimes, let alone actually see her. But she hangs in there, y’know? Good times, bad times. That’s how I know it’s forever.”

Shiro glanced away. “…I thought it was going to be forever. I’ve known Adam since…well, our first year at the garrison. We were flight partners, and then – y’know.”

“And I’m sure in some universe, you guys are still together, but in this one – you chose the stars and Adam chose to leave. That’s actually, really mature. You both decided what you could live with and what you couldn’t, and then you moved on and found someone who wants the same thing as you.”

Shiro blinked and sat up straighter, a knot in his chest unfurling. “No one – No one has ever put it like that before. Even Commander Holt said I should try to patch things up.”

“Can’t speak for Holt but it sounds like you and Adam want different things. And that’s okay.” Hunk hooked the larger bowl up to the mixer, and a high-pitched whirling added a soundtrack to their conversation. “Better to figure that out now than after you’re married.”

“Yeah, yeah. I guess so.” He couldn’t deny he would miss Adam, though, couldn’t deny he already did.

“But y’know, might not be a bad idea to at least try to clear the air,” Hunk offered, separating the cupcake wrappers in the tin. “Maybe apologize that things didn’t work out, not that you’re taking the mission.”

Shiro leaned back on his hand and watched as Hunk poured the batter precisely into each cup, wiping the edge of the bowl with a napkin. “Maybe. It’s still a few months away. What about you? You said your girlfriend lives elsewhere? Are you looking to close the distance?”

Hunk nodded. “Yeah, one day, but it’s kinda important the work we’re doing, my team and me. Shay understands.”

“Hm. Sounds nice.”

“It is, but not everyone has what we have. And not everyone finds it as quickly, either – or at all.” Hunk slid the tray into the oven and started the timer. “But when you do – when you find people who love you for who you are, not who they want you to be – you hold onto them.”

Shiro smiled as Hunk handed him the spoon to lick. “Sound advice.”

“Eh. I have a good team leader who knows his stuff.”

As soon as Shiro finished the spoon, he joined Hunk in cleaning up the thrown batter, despite Hunk’s disapproval. Hunk told Shiro he liked his kitchen a certain way, but Shiro wasn’t about to let someone else clean up his mess without any help.

As they worked, Shiro spoke about the mission, about Keith, about his days at the Galaxy Garrison, and Hunk talked about Shay, about his friends, and about meeting new people and learning new recipes.

The oven dinged not long after they wiped down the last surface, and soon Shiro was humming around a delicious set of red velvet cupcakes. They were the best he’d ever had, and he made sure to tell Hunk such.

Hunk blushed and took a bite of his own mini cake. “Hey, y’know, it might not seem like it now, but it sounds like you have lots of people who care about you, man. If you ever want them to bake you cupcakes, you just say the word. I’m sure they would.”

Shiro laughed, though it was hollow. “Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.”

“And maybe – you might want to tell Admiral Sanda or Commander Holt that when they start training on the Mecha Flex Exofighters, they should work with their best pilots, not cadets? That’s just…conducive to saving the world, y’know? Training the best rather than the youngest.”

Halfway through his second cupcake – screw his pre-mission diet – Shiro mumbled, “What’s an exofighter? I haven’t heard of those before – or flown them.”

Hunk winked. “Just trust me, all right? Mention it to Sam. Oh, and do the world a favor, Shiro. Stay out of the kitchen or only use it with adult supervision.”

Shiro would have glared, but he was too preoccupied with the cupcakes. He would do as many sessions at the gym as needed to finish off yet another two or three.

“Shiro? One more thing,” Hunk added just before he exited the room. “Happy Birthday – and many more.”

Shiro snorted. He didn’t know how many more there would be, but he was determined to enjoy the rest of this one. Hey, there was still a good half dozen left. Maybe he’d take a few to Keith and Matt.

One Mission, Many Wormholes, and Two Birthdays Later

The door to mess hall slid open, and Shiro looked left, then right, before stepping inside. Immediately, the lights flipped on, and Shiro barely held in his screech.

“Hunk,” he managed once he breathed again. “You don’t have to guard the kitchen every year.”

Hunk lifted a tray of expertly decorated and undeniably delicious cupcakes. A few sported little Black Lions while the rest had the head of Voltron. “Yes, yes I do. Trust me on that. Now come on. Get your first cupcake before the rest of the garrison arrives.”

Shiro raised an eyebrow as he selected his cupcake, finger sweep around the edge of the icing. “The rest of the garrison…?”

In less than ten minutes time, the mess hall upon the Atlas was packed with the various teams, including Admiral Allura with her ship crew, Commander Adam West with his MFE Squadron, Prince Lotor with his Sincline generals, and of course, Shiro with his paladins. Black rumbled in the back of his mind, and as he sat among his teams, Shiro smiled and snatched another cupcake or three.

Eventually, he collapsed to the corner of the hall, eyes roaming over the people he held nearest and dearest to his heart. Hunk came to sit next to him and smirked at the wrappers on the table next to Shiro.

“Having a good day?”

“Yeah, yeah. Y’know, Hunk, someone once told me that if I ever wanted cupcakes, all I had to do is ask the people around me.”

Hunk blinked and then shrugged. “Well, y’know, I’m more than happy to –”

“But there’s something special about coming down to a set of cupcakes already made just for me.” He clasped Hunk on the shoulder and smiled. “Thanks, Hunk. It is nice to have people here who love me for who I am, not who they want me to be.”

Hunk smiled. “It is a nice feeling. And my kitchen stays intact. I like that.”

“That’s best for all parties involved,” Shiro laughed.

“Yeah, we wouldn’t be able to form Voltron without its head.”

Shiro let out a quick laugh, which Hunk shared, and decided to assume Hunk was joking. Still, he’d stay out of the kitchen, just to make sure.

The End

#shiro #hunk #shiro's birthday #prompt #thehawkeyefan #answered #voltron #gen rhys #ptw30 pens #vld

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queertheology · 4 years

Text

THE NUTS AND BOLTS OF CREATING A SEXUAL ETHIC

I trust you — yes you! — to formulate a sexual ethic that works for you and is in alignment with your faith and your values.

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.”

Matthew 7:15-20

When it comes to sex, you probably have a lot of people telling you what you should and shouldn’t be doing. For those of us seeking to figure out sex within a progressive, LGBTQ-affirming Christianity, it can be tempting to look outside of ourselves for the answers. If the conservative pastor tells us one thing about sex, maybe we should look to a progressive pastor to tell us something different.

I’m not going to do that.

I trust you — yes you! — to formulate a sexual ethic that works for you and is in alignment with your faith and your values. That doesn’t mean that it exists in a vacuum, or that you can’t (or shouldn’t) consult others — trusted friends, spiritual leaders, mentors, and even sacred texts — but what it does mean is that ultimately, the buck stops with you.

You’ve got this.

You are a smart, thoughtful person. You care about doing the right thing. And, just by reading this, you’ve shown that you can look for support when you need it.

Together, we’re going to develop a sexual ethic that resonates with you.

Step 1: Identify your values

If you haven’t already done so, take some time to think about the values that matter to you. You can’t outsource this work, you can’t just simply flip open a Bible because “the Bible says” a whole lot of conflicting things about sex.

You can use this worksheet to jot down what matters to you.

Step 2: Reflect on your experiences

Think back on the sexual and romantic experiences you’ve had and get in touch with what felt good and what didn’t. There’s a spectrum of sexual and romantic experiences so think about everything from holding hands and kissing to penetrative sex (if you’ve had it). And don’t just limit yourself to “traditionally sexual” experiences. You can also meditate on times when your boundaries have been respected or transgressed. When you’ve felt safe and when you’ve felt vulnerable.

Also notice when your desires match or mismatch with your actions or the expectations or people around you. Maybe you really wanted to express your relationship but felt pressure from your church not to. Or maybe you don’t experience sexual attraction to anyone and feel pressured to have sex.

This step isn’t about coming up with a list of “dos” and “don’ts” (those are often context-specific and shift over time). Instead, this is about picking up on throughlines and patterns.

At the end of this process, we’re going to walk away with two things: clarity on what works for you right now and a guiding framework for interacting with others.

Step 3: Step outside yourself

I know that it’s tempting for me to center myself. If I don’t like something, how could anyone? If I want something, why doesn’t everyone?

Step 2 was all about reflecting on our own experiences and it’s important to remember that they are just that: our own experiences.

In this step, we’re going to step outside of ourselves and use each of those experiences to tap into shared values.

As you look at your past experiences, look beyond the specifics (“We were drunk,” “there were lots of candles and rose petals”, “we did this thing,” or “we didn’t do that”) and look at how you felt: safe, seen, understood, respected, violated, disregarded, taken advantage of, excited, scared.

Step 4: Articulate your ethics

This is the step where it all comes together.

You’ve gotten in touch with your values.

You’ve reflected on your experiences.

You’ve stepped outside of yourself and tapped into something bigger.

Congrats: you’ve already done all the hard work. Now it’s just about putting it all together.

We’re not looking to create a sexual rulebook. Instead, we’re looking to articulate an ethical framework.

Merriam-Webster defines ethics as

a set of moral principles : a theory or system of moral values

That’s what we’re developing here: a set of moral principles. What’s right and wrong. What’s helpful or harmful. What’s ethical and what’s not.

Your responses and reflections to the prompts in each step so far point the way toward that set of moral principles. Now you just tie them all together.

I like to “speak from the I” when I share my ethics. In doing so, I own that these are my ethics, they’re how I see the world. I use them to judge people and experiences (more on that in the next step), but I also acknowledge that they’re mine. Yours might be different.

Here are my sexual ethics:

It’s important for me that relationships be grounded in honesty, communication, and trust.

I want sex to be free of force or coercion.

I want people to feel safe and supported in their sexual decisions.

It’s important to me that everyone has control over their own body.

I value informed consent.

I understand that I am responsible for my own decisions — and my partners are responsible for their own decisions. And also, I want us to take care of each other as best we can, in ways that are appropriate for our relationship.

That list is pretty different from the list I heard in youth group growing up (wait until you’re married to have sex, don’t date for more than a year, light kissing is ok, making out is ok if you’re dating … just don’t get too heavy with it, you maybe shouldn’t masturbate, you probably shouldn’t touch each other below the belt, you’re probably going to touch boobs but you’re also probably going to feel guilty about it).

The specific sexual decisions that you or I make might vary from context to context or shift over time.

For instance, Fr. Shay was celibate for many years and now is not … but his underlying sexual ethic didn’t change.

When you create a sexual ethic, it’s not a list of what you want or don’t want to do (though, thinking through that can also be super valuable. Scarleteen has a thorough Yes/No/Maybe list that you could go through by yourself or with a partner). And it isn’t going to tell you what you’ll do in any given situation. Instead it’s a framework that you can refer make to when you need to make sexual choices.

Step 5: Release judgements

Your sexual ethics are the summary of what you value, how you see the world, what’s right and what’s wrong. Sometimes we are called to make decisions about what’s right and what’s wrong, and sometimes we are called to celebrate differences.

It’s important here to distinguish between “judging something as right or wrong” and “judging something as different than me.”

It’s possible for someone who shares my sexual ethics to make completely different sexual choices.

Looking at my sexual ethics, it’s possible that one person could be celibate while someone else might be completely comfortable with casual sex. Someone might be polyamorous while being completely supportive of another person’s decision to be monogamous.

Release judgement against people who are making different decisions than you would make, even if you don’t understand them, as long as they are acting ethically.

Step 6: Assess and Adjust

Sex is messy. And so is life. You’re going to hit some bumps along the way. You’re going to have an experience that shakes you up or meet a person that challenges everything you thought you knew.

My sexual ethic today looks completely different than the one I had 10 years ago and even more different than the one I had just 5 years before that.

Think of your sexual ethic like the United States Constitution: it’s a foundational document, it’s what we base our decisions on, it should withstand (and transcend) the whims of the moment, but also sometimes you need to change it and that’s OK.

YOU NEED TO MOVE FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

The most important part in this process is actually doing it. This isn’t something you can just sorta think about in your head while you’re reading this on your morning commute.

Set aside some alone time. Light a candle if that’s your thing. Use Word, Google Docs, Evernote if you collect your thoughts better on a computer. Grab your favorite notebook or a piece of scratch paper if longhand is more your style. And then write out your thoughts.

If you want to email them in, I’d love to read what you come up with. Send them over to [email protected].

You got this.

THERE'S MORE!

On Tuesday February 4, we’re hosting a free online workshop to really dive into all things faithful sexuality! We’ll look at developing a sexual ethic, making faithful sexual choices, navigating relationships, and more! Plus you’ll be able to ask us your questions and chat with other viewers (if you’d like). It’s happening at 8pm EST and you can register here.

#queer theology #faithfully LGBT #FaithfullyLGBT #gay christian #transgender christian #Christian #transgender #Christianity

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atosofficial · 4 years

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dragonsdreameruniverse-blog replied to your post “BF Chat Event”

Think it would be funny if you had boys watch or do something. That makes them all scared or nervous or something like that, except for Dream. And you have all the boys end up going to Dream for comfort and cuddles.

WE’LL CONSIDER IT! For now, we’re gonna keep the event closed to focus on other things, but if we get inspired, we’ll be sure to make more of these texts! And Dream cuddling all his boys is such a soff image ;;w;;

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@serenade-bleue replied to your post “BF Chat Event”

the asks were really fun :D thank you!

Lyra: Thank you for enjoying them along with us! We wouldn’t be able to do something like this if it wasn’t for all of you lovely followers, and I’m glad you had fun with our silly little event :”)

Type: Agreed!! It was such a blast and we couldn’t have done it without you guys :”)

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@tails-and-scales replied to your photoset “Translations: mi cielo = my sky ay shay’ li'ajlak ya qamar = anything...”

Oh that one hurt- Yet I still love it, god these boys have a good thing going on ��

MMMMMM yeah I feel you on that, bro 😩💦 Sometimes the angst hits just right 👌👌👌 They definitely have a good thing going for them, which is why I love this OT4 so much :”) They’re good for each other 💗🖤💛💜

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bluedysania replied to your photoset

followup for dragondreamer; oh yeah, that's absolutely Cross. he shadows Dream everywhere. also, aaaaaah! thank you for this! its greeeeat!

Yeah he absolutely would! And he’s very apologetic about it but also doesn’t want to let Dream out of his sight ;w; Killer and Nightmare are like that too. Fortunately, Dream is very understanding, and he’s more than happy to spend time alone with them ;w;

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dragonsdreameruniverse-blog replied to your photoset

Dream will freak out when all those messages sent by his boys start showing up on his phone and he realizes just how badly he scares them. They mostly won't let Dream go anywhere for awhile or make excuses for one of them to tag along.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSS I love me so worried, protective boys! 👏👏👏 I don’t think they’d restrict him from leaving the castle, but tagging along sounds like a possibility 👀 Cross asks Dream if he’d like some company while going out, but he’s sweating up a storm, and Dream can easily read his worry. Killer would just say he’s accompanying Dream point blank, no need for an excuse other than “he wants to hang out with his little light.” He doesn’t make a big deal about it, and he and Dream end up having a fun chill time. Nightmare is the one who tries to convince Dream to stay in bed with him, bribing him with sleeping together or fucking. It works for a little while until Dream actually has to go take care of business. They establish a system then of texting each other back and forth every so often for both updates and to keep the other reassured. 😌❤️️

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@lonerhuman101 replied to your photoset “And a bonus, future!ATOS: Not pictured: Nightmare making a thin,...”

I imagine he fucks with all of his bfs at some point in this matter

Lyra: He could, but then that would diminish the fun he gets from exclusively messing with Cross in this way. It’s half the fun just seeing Cross try to defend himself while the others are like “??? idk what you’re talking about, man. it’s nightmare. he doesn’t do that sort of thing.” Cross just gets increasingly frustrated and later corners a smug Nightmare and fucks him uwu

Nightmare still continues to send the texts every so often 😂

Type: Yeah, I think this is a Cross Exclusive thing hehehe Nightmare has plenty of other ways to tease the rest of his BFs--messing around with texting is for Cross ;3

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@kirango-rouge replied to your post “BF Chat Event”

Thank you for the amazing content ^^/ and congrats for your followers!❤️❤️❤️❤️

Lyra: Thank you for following! Seriously, when Type and I started this blog, we never imagined so many of you would jump on board with us. It’s been such a delight, and we’re so grateful :”)

Type: THANK YOUUU!! Seconding Lyra--it’s been a pleasure ;w;

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@stoffelees replied to your photoset “Translation: Te extraño tanto. = I miss you so much. Feliz cumpleaños...”

This hit me in the feels T_T

SAME 😭 Ugh, Type is such a genius hhhhhhhhhhh She wrote some extra hurty boys, and I love it 😩👏👏👏

#dragonsdreameruniverse-blog #serenade-bleue #tails-and-scales #bluedysania #lonerhuman101 #kirango-rouge #stoffelees #replies #mod lyra #mod type

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shima-draws · 5 years

Text

Alright

I have a lot of things to say so it’s all under the cut

First of all, wow. What a finale. What a fucking finale, man...

I’m warning you now this is not a nice rant so if you really love Voltron and don’t like seeing other people hate on it do not read this lol

Let me be honest, Voltron really isn’t that great of a show. I’ve pretty much stayed here watching the new seasons out of obligation and my love for the characters. Even then the writers still fucked that up so I’m stealing them all and they’re mine now. I’m not even sorry.

Voltron has always been a really tough show to keep track of and follow along with;; I never really know what’s going on and they introduce characters and planets so quickly that I forget about them right away and there’s like maybe 3 that are really memorable. So honestly the whole series has just seemed like an EXCESSIVE amount of filler that nobody needed. Even starting season 8 I had no fucking idea what was going on because the end of season 7 was just THAT unmemorable lmao. And they brought back so many characters I was like “Who the FUCK are you??” And it just made it ten times more confusing.

There was just so much unnecessary content we didn’t need in there. In season 8 they fought Honerva in her giant robot for like three or four episodes straight and that got really tiring really fast. Honestly most of s8 was just robot fights and I’m like “Are they writing a meaningful story or just 7 billion eye candy action sequences” TAKE THE TIME TO DEVELOP YOUR CHARACTERS, UNIVERSE, AND PLOT MORE INSTEAD OF DEDICATING 15 OUT OF 20 MINUTES OF SCREENTIME TO ROBOT FIGHTS THANKS. There are SO many plot holes and questions left unanswered that we’ll never get answered so that’s fantastic. Not to mention all of those fights were so fucking repetitive I got so bored watching the same thing happen over and over again. Voltron always wins, what’s fucking new?

Also man jesus christ they fucked over their characters SO MUCH. I’ll get into Allura last but let’s go down the list, shall we?

Lance was reduced to not only the comic relief but the super boring love interest. His relationship with Allura felt so forced and unnatural and there was no chemistry between them whatsoever. It was almost as if the writers were like “We need something for Lance to do in season 8” and then they decided “Let’s just make him a foil for Allura and make him her boyfriend!!” Like it was SO unnecessary and I’m sorry to any Allu//ance shippers out there but I felt so uncomfortable watching their romantic interactions. And I’m not SUPPOSED to feel that way. I actually did ship them until I watched this season but now I’m just really put off by it because WOW they wrote that romance horribly. I know people hate comparing Voltron to ATLA but take Sokka/Suki for example. Their dynamic is very similar to Lance and Allura’s and it’s a PERFECT example of what a good healthy relationship is like that isn’t forced or super awkward. If the writers had written their relationship like Sokka and Suki’s I’m sure I would like it SO much more! I was so upset to see Lance lose pretty much ALL of his development and be reduced to just a foil or a background character they could beat up on and use for fodder about Allura’s death. So fucking uncool. On top of that Lance became a FARMER?? REALLY?? He had dreams of becoming a famous pilot and yeah a war will do shit to you but I CANNOT imagine him living that sort of boring life it’s just not Lance at all!! So immensely out of character and not what he deserved. Lance deserved a real, true happy ending kicking ass in space and being in love with someone who really loved him back.

And Shiro—god, they fucking abused the shit out of him and treated him like a punching bag. Not to mention the awful queer baiting with Adam and then, to rectify their awful mistake, the writers made it so that he got married at the end of the series. Great. I don’t even know who the other guy is. Congrats Shiro, but it really doesn’t mean fucking shit if it was added on last minute and seems like a way to appease fans rather than to actually give Shiro a good ending. They could have brought Adam back and let Shiro marry him but nope!! They fucked that up too

Also all character development for Hunk went down the drain and he was also reduced to comic relief. He didn’t end up with Shay like I was hoping and just god so much racism I’m too irritated to even get into that

Keith and Pidge were the only ones who really got semi-decent endings and even still they were written badly too. (Doesn’t mean I’m not proud of them tho, good kids.)

And Allura.

FUCK. THE WRITERS.

They absolutely did not need to kill her off like that it was so pointless and utterly stupid that I’m sitting here rolling my eyes into the back of my head. They literally killed her for dramatic effect and that’s it. Yeah whatever she saved the fucking universe but they could’ve done that another way! That’s just lazy ass writing and it really offended a lot of people including myself so yeah! Not happy about that! It’s really racist and also pretty misogynist too?? Also Allura during the last season was not my favorite character at all she was written so terribly and out of character that I just ended up hating her and she deserves so much better than this absolute fucking bullshit

If they wanted to have a good final season, they should have kept Allura alive, given everyone actual GOOD character development, not threw in a super forced and uncomfortable relationship, and gave the characters proper happy endings with the people they SHOULD have ended up with. Not that romance is that big of a deal since Voltron isn’t about that but man they could have satisfied so many fans doing that but they just took the show and spit on it

So yeah I’ve had a really great experience being part of the fandom and creating content, and there’s definitely some good parts to the show. Voltron is a bad show lmao but I still had fun, and I’m still gonna make content that the fans actually deserve and want—and forget canon even exists. I’m salty and disappointed but I’m not surprised. Even so the show did end on as good as a note as it could have considering the circumstances and while I’m not 100% satisfied it was what I was expecting so. I’m like, iffy about how I feel towards the finale.

Anyway Klance is canon king, Adam and Shiro are married, Hunk is a universally famous chef with his gf Shay, Allura and Romelle are the new Altean Queens, Pidge is fucking amazing being herself and everyone’s happy the end

#Shima speaks #Anyway I'm salty goodnight #I still love Voltron but I also hate Voltron #I love fanon Voltron not canon lmao #I take Lance and Keith away from the writers #And Shiro and Allura and everyone #Long post #Voltron #Vld s8 spoilers

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lightsandlostbells · 5 years

Text

Skam Austin season 2, episode 1 reaction

Finally, Skam Austin returns, this time without Julie Andem behind the wheel. Honestly, no matter your opinion on this version of Skam, I’m actually quite curious as to where they’re going with this. Noorhelm, American-style? In the #MeToo era??? Will this season be a pleasant surprise and a sensitive rewrite of the original season, or will it just raise my blood pressure?

Episode 1

Clip 1 - Less dance, more cupcakes please

Big establishing shots of Austin and Bouldin High, a “national outstanding high school” according to a banner. Abby talking a selfie with her girls. Tyler and his boyfriend sloppily kissing??? Congrats on being the first gay couple to get the S2 opening clip makeouts! Also, just gotta say, nice that a gay couple can engage in the same PDA as a straight pairing at a high school in a red state, although Austin’s less conservative than a lot of Texas.

Megan and Grace observe the makeout, as well as Shay sitting by herself on the stairs. Megan feels bad for Shay. When Grace asks why, Megan says she’d feel bad if Grace had a boyfriend. HMMM FORESHADOWING. Also, gay. Megan, the solution is to go be Shay’s girlfriend so she’s not alone. (For real, I have kinda mixed feelings on Megan and Shay actually getting together, because while I love their longing looks and hand holding, Shay betrayed Megan’s confidence in a huge way that would require tons of effort to repair the relationship, and I can only really buy it during a Shay season where there’s lots of focus on them. And I think it’s more likely they’ll give Shay an Even who’s brand new. But I wouldn’t object if there was a good story arc for Megan and Shay!)

Grace thinks Tyler’s boyfriend has a long tongue, Megan thinks Marlon’s is longer … well, that statement feels loaded. Like, we-won’t-need-Jonas’-Blue-Monday-power-walk kinda loaded.

Megan and Shay exchange an awkward wave. Almost a year later and things still aren’t normal, I guess. Shay fucked it up.

Josefina has tried to do her own hijab, I guess? Zoya helps her do it properly. It’s really cute. Jo is my MVP of this show. I adore her. They need to make sure to do Shay and Zoya seasons on time so we can squeeze in a Jo season before they graduate.

Kelsey runs up. She made it onto the Kittens! I guess that’s one way to not have a dance team anymore. Some of the Kittens got busted for cheating on tests and got kicked off the team and L M A O obviously this wasn’t planned but I love this development happening now with the college admissions cheating scandal featuring Felicity Huffman and Aunt Becky.

Jo wants to tattoo Kelsey’s eyebrows, continuing the thread of her using Kelsey’s face as her cosmetic guinea pig from the first season.

Kelsey is excited because she can be on both the Kittens and the girl squad dance team. LMAO, so that WAS a thing. Did they actually dance??? It sounds like it. Apparently the team unofficially disbanded when Grace stopped going to the games and parties to focus on the school newspaper.

But I do love Grace being on the school paper; I worked for my campus newspaper so I am unreasonably excited to see where that goes. I’m assuming Noora’s Constitution Day article will become a column that Grace/(Daniel) writes for the newspaper?

Grace says she loves working at the newspaper and Kelsey tries to guilt her because it’s junior year and it’s the year colleges look at, you need to have extracurriculars. You can’t just be good, you have to be amazing. Well, that’s true, junior year is a big deal and the pressure to have a million extracurriculars is real. But lmao, newspaper is an extracurricular, as Grace points out. Kelsey thinks Grace needs more than “repetitive feminist essays” and OK, rude, and I also feel personally attacked. But if you’re going to get on Grace’s ass, Kelsey then what are your other “amazing” extracurriculars? By the same logic, wouldn’t you need more than dance teams? (I should not expect logic from Kelsey when it comes to dance teams, I know. Or Daniel.)

Jo gives this conversation the attention it deserves, which is minimal, because she has a cupcake. Her priorities are accurate. She says it’s the best cupcake in Austin so her search is over. Lmao, that Instagram content paid off. Now she should take on her quest for other top desserts. Megan can assist her in finding the best smoothie in Austin.

They’re talking about spring break. Kelsey needs to get her body ready, a hint toward her body image issues and concerns over her weight. Then Daniel’s voice comes out of nowhere to tell Grace that juniors can’t park in the senior lot. Grace says it’s not a big deal, Daniel says it is. Zoya, BLESS HER, is like, “So what are you going to do? Kick our ass?” YESSSSSSS someone besides Grace is not taking Daniel’s shit.

It is downright uncomfortable how much Kelsey is trying to cozy up to Daniel playing hall monitor and how Daniel just ignores her when she’s right there to flirt with Grace. He says he hasn’t seen Grace in a while. At first I thought they did have their infamous date during the long hiatus - can you imagine not including that scene in a Noorhelm remake - but as it turns out, it still hasn’t happened. He asks about Grace’s boyfriend, and Kelsey blows Grace’s cover by saying Grace doesn’t have a boyfriend. Grace tries to save it by saying it’s her ex. So that’s how she got Daniel off her back. You know, if you lie about a fake boyfriend, that should be a giant clue to back off, dude. But instead Daniel knows she’s single so you know he’s gonna go after Grace again.

Kelsey tells Daniel she’s a Kitten and wants to take a pic with him. God, this is cringe-worthy. Someone stop Kelsey from doing anything. Ever. And it is so deeply awkward how the girls just stop and watch as Kelsey snaps some selfies of her with Daniel. In front of Grace.

Something super interesting in the comments: a few people commented how it didn’t feel like a Julie Andem clip. I assume people who recognize Julie Andem by name are fairly involved in the fandom, but I’m not sure how widespread the knowledge of Julie’s departure was. I wonder if they guessed it on their own.

Clip 2 - First rule of being an Eskild: never lock your door

Grace is cutting up vegetables for dinner. And dancing. I like they had her do this, it’s goofy and humanizing, and in line with her characterization from season 1. Noora would sing to Justin Bieber, Grace loves dancing like a fool. The irony of course being that Grace doesn’t give a fuck about the dance team, lol. She dances for herself and HERSELF ONLY (and sometimes Megan, when Megan needs a pick-me-up).

She talks to Megan, who is with Marlon. Megan told Marlon about what happened with Grace and Daniel, so errrr, thanks Megan? But Grace says she’s going to tell Kelsey everything, presumably about her and Daniel’s deal, so Daniel won’t have anything over her head. Daniel holding something over Grace’s head? Grace thinking Daniel might tell Kelsey something incriminating? Trust is an essential foundation of a relationship, just saying.

Megan asks Marlon for his opinion and this dude clearly could not give a single shit about Grace and Daniel and Kelsey, he just says that if a girl isn’t into you, you just leave her alone. Not looking at the phone (and Grace) at all, just giving Megan some Looks, in my opinion. Based on later clips where he’s got a new girl, I think he’s trying to communicate that he no longer has feelings for Megan, but that Megan keeps hanging around and clinging to him. That would go along with Megan not getting it and saying maybe the guy doesn’t want to be left alone, showing she doesn’t get it (right after Marlon says “I don’t see why he doesn’t get that”). Also Marlon seems to be checking his phone during this chat so he’s not fully invested - my mind went to Jonas looking up other girls with Eva during the original version of this clip.

I will say, good on Marlon for knowing to leave girls alone if they don’t want you. Which is more than I can say for some characters in the Skam universe. Marlon’s probably my least favorite Jonas so this is a point in his favor, even if it is a low bar, lol.

But also IDK if he’s being Woke or if he’s just swapping out Daniel and Grace for him and Megan and hoping Meg gets the picture.

Megan thinks Grace doesn’t want to be left alone and Grace goes into a rant about how Daniel isn’t her type, he’s not smart, doesn’t read, needs to check his white male privilege etc. Tbh it’s kinda cringy and on the nose in execution, like all of that is true and they’re solid reasons for Grace to not want Daniel, but I feel like they’re just stacking up ideas to be debunked about him. We’ll probably learn that Daniel is actually some sensitive dude who reads books and has political opinions and is a secret genius or whatever.

Grace notices her pasta is gone and waltzes into her cousin Eve’s room while Eve is engaged in some foreplay with her lady guest. Gee, Grace, that’s awfully bold considering you didn’t know what state of undress they’d be in. At least their underwear is still on … and Eve’s shoes … why does she have shoes on??

Anyway, LESBIAN ESKILD. Eve immediately establishes that she is some sort of hipster artist and kicks out Grace so she can go back to hooking up with her girl.

Daniel texts Grace that she’s cute when she gets caught, and thanks her for sending him her class notes when he was in the hospital. What was he in the hospital for? I don’t think that was stated on SM, or did I just miss it? (It’s on the Bouldin Beat Instagram: he had a football injury.) Grace said there’s no need to thank her because the teacher asked her to. He makes a joke abut football players not being able to read, which makes Grace smile, so you know ... she’s not so opposed to him as she lets on. But then he suggests they hang out tomorrow and her amusement fades, because that’s pushing things too far. We end before Grace answers.

Clip 3 - Why are we still talking about Daniel? Zoya’s words, not mine

They’re at SXSW for Marlon’s show. The banner says SX Sessions. I was confused as to why Marlon’s garage band would be playing here but looking at the banner for the event, I see something about all Austin bands, so if it’s an event featuring local talent, it makes more sense as to why Clout is playing.

A girl is talking to Marlon. Grace notices and seems to check in with Megan. Who does look great, by the way, in her leather jacket, her peer-reviewed ensemble. Megan’s still hung up on Marlon after almost a year, it seems. But also … lol, barely anyone wants them back together. They’re one of the least popular Eva/Jonas pairings. Possibly the least.

Kelsey is still talking about Daniel because he texted her and invited them to Penetrator Jo’s beach house for spring break. Grace is like mmmm … that sounds far away. I mean, would you want to be in her shoes, stuck at a beach house with the guy who won’t take no for an answer, where people will be drinking, where you probably couldn’t relax and even go swimming because that dude is definitely going to be looking at you in your swimsuit? Megan tries to help Grace by saying Marlon invited them all to a party. Josefina wants to go to be around mostly naked guys while they are also mostly naked. Kelsey and Zoya do not seem to be happy with the mostly naked part. Grace is like, we can just stay at my place and bake cookies instead! That would be my preferred option.

Kelsey wants some quality time with Daniel (is any time with Daniel quality time)and guilts Grace into going. I love that she’s like “We can talk about the dance team in the car” as if that would make Grace want to go. Grace reluctantly agrees and Kelsey tells Daniel the good news. He responds right away. He also texts Grace right away that they’ll be hanging out. No one notices the suspicious timing of the texts.

Kelsey wants to know if Daniel might like her, Zoya wants to know why we’re still talking about Daniel. THANK YOU. Megan goes off to talk to Marlon and block that girl from getting too close to him, like she literally squeezes between them. Zoya lays out what a rude ass Daniel was to Kelsey and Kelsey is like, but he genuinely apologized!!! And she’s a Kitten now!!! Kelsey loves how direct Daniel is and how he knows what he wants. Yeahhhh, about that. He does go after what/who he wants. It’s just not you.

Also, lol, they conveniently didn’t have to film an actual concert for this scene.

Clip 4 - Newspaper time!!!

Grace is doing newspaper stuff at school with a guy (Nic) and Poonam. Poonam!!!! That girl spoke her first line and I remembered how much I enjoyed her overachieving ridiculousness.

Kelsey texts the girls that she had a dream where Daniel asked her to prom. She was wearing her Kittens uniform in the cafeteria and Daniel came up, knelt, and offered a dozen roses. Lol, I don’t think Daniel would do that shit even if he did like Kelsey. But also … Kelsey. Dear. You’re so embarrassing. Being a Kitten is not going to make you a Daniel magnet.

They talk about the launch, so I guess the newspaper is a new thing? Or they’re adding a new feature? Poonam is nervous about the launch and what people will think of her. Grace says she doesn’t care what people think of her. (Or so she thinks ... I think Grace certainly wants people to think she doesn’t care and that she’s strong and independent, for example.) Poonam says if it fails she’ll pretend not to know Grace. Lmao, classic Poonam.

Grace slides over to Nic, the dude who’s there. According to the Bouldin Beat Instagram, he’s the cartoonist for the paper, but their conversation makes me think he does some graphics design, too. He’s listening to a Hamilton mixtape. Grace didn’t know he likes Hamilton, so she obviously didn’t see that Bouldin Beat IG post where it says Nic has the Hamilton soundtrack on heavy rotation. She brings up that her friend Kelsey likes the Hamilton mixtape. (I’m sorry but LMAO, because on the one hand I do find that totally believable, but on the other hand, my God, imagine someone with Kelsey’s level of racial sensitivity being a Hamilton fan.) Nick knows Kelsey and thinks she’s funny. So I think either he’s going to be the Magnus, maybe, as far as being Kelsey’s eventual love interest (although ... lol, see above comment about Kelsey’s level of racial sensitivity), or Grace will see him as a potential love interest for Kelsey and try to hook them up to get Kelsey’s mind off Daniel.

Shay comes in. It is instantly awkward. Grace: “I like your hair.” Shay: “It’s not real.” Lmao. I missed you, too.

However! In the most depressing development ever, Shay is here to see Nic. He gets up and kisses her on the mouth. It is bleak. Shay looks so not enthusiastic. She was staring at Grace in a pretty hard way, too, what’s that about? Did she know Grace saw her texts and showed them to Megan?

Shay’s “BYE” is passive-aggressive as hell. Grace sits there in shock as Poonam is like, they seem like a cute couple. LMAO GOD.

Just throwing this out there: best acted scene of the season so far, however brief. The power of La’keisha Slade.

Anyway. NOOOOOOO. Shayyyyyyy. It’s not unexpected, considering the trajectory of the Isak character in S2, but I thought, since Shay seemed to have an awareness of her sexuality at the end of S1 - she knows she likes girls and she was OK with telling Tyler about it - that maybe we could skip this stage. There’s something really dark about this, too, because Tyler is out there making out with dudes, it’s not like she thinks her friend group is completely homophobic (and yes, people can view gay guys and lesbians differently and have varying levels of acceptance, but I doubt that’s the case with Shay’s friends) so it’s not just about putting up a show for her friends.

What does Tyler think about Shay dating a guy? He’s not the nicest guy overall but he does care about Shay, and he knows she likes girls, possibly that she likes only girls depending on what she told him in the past. Now I’m wondering if Shay started dating Nic in part because Tyler has his boyfriend now, and Shay presumably feels like she’s left out, as Megan said. Damn. Shay needs a hug in any case.

Clip 5 - Cookie baking

Grace’s J. Didion (as in writer Joan Didion) sweatshirt is a nice touch and exactly the kind of thing I think her character would wear.

I enjoy Eve on principle because lesbian Eskild fuck yeah, but I also feel like her delivery is very ... TV-ish. Like someone who has watched a lot of teen dramas and is channeling the same flow/energy of how those shows present dialogue. I don’t think she’s bad, it’s not that, it’s just more when watching this show I feel like I am watching a typical scripted TV show rather than the very natural Skam style - not just with Eve, a lot of the show, even compared to the first season. I just thought of it with Even because when she entered here, it felt more like a wacky TV neighbor kinda entrance, like she was Kramer or something. Is that because Julie isn’t working on the show anymore?

Anyway, Eve tells Grace about some girl who is lighting dildos on fire and that’s the real story here, I want the clip about the dildo pyre.

Eve sees a text from Daniel on Grace’s phone and says he sounds like a blast. I refuse to believe this lesbian would be impressed by Daniel in the fucking slightest.

He did send a cute dog picture to Grace so that’s one thing he has going for him. Grace has a cute dog, too. If their romance was just them walking their dogs, I could warm up to that. Gradually.

Grace says Daniel is some stuck-up asshole and Eve looks him up on her phone, saying she knows him. His brother was in her grade, a wild athlete who broke records, and his sister had some tragedy attached to her. The mention of tragedy gives Grace pause.

Actually, a point in Skam Austin’s favor: if they talk about toxic masculinity and rape culture in high school/college athletics and how jocks are favored and get let off the hook for heinous actions, that would be extremely culturally relevant. I mean, a football player in Texas? Treated like a god. And there have been some high profile rape cases involving athletes. Daniel’s brother has likely graduated and gone on to college, maybe playing college football if he was that good, but it would be a way to make the S2 sexual assault storyline even more suited to American culture.

Clip 6 - Daniel’s going to be on Investigation Discovery one day, mark my words

The girls are at Grace’s house. They must have had a sleepover. There’s a nice nod to OG when the girls mention using a Ouija board the night before. So I guess we’re not getting that cabin episode (understandable because American school timelines would not allow for it, probably). Jo was afraid the ghosts tried to pluck her unibrow. NOOOOO GHOSTS, LEAVE IT ALONE. IT’S MAGNIFICENT.

Grace comes out with nachos and offers them to the girls. Kelsey looks at that plate and is like, shoot, I can’t do cheese, or chips, or beans. And I know this is Kelsey and she has an eating disorder, but like … people have legit problems with cheese and beans, lol. To her credit, Grace doesn’t make Kelsey eat the nachos or call her out. She offers to make Kelsey a kale salad or a turkey wrap, but Kelsey shuts that down, too. (She was also doing jumping jacks while the other girls were reminiscing about ghosts, just saying.)

Megan is upset because Marlon left her on read, probably because he has that new girl, not that Megan knows yet, and Daniel is texting Grace about when she’s leaving. Daniel then texts Kelsey the same thing. Grace texts Daniel to stop using Kelsey to get to her. Daniel is like, wouldn’t have to if you’d answer me! Grace says he’s messed up. I mean, yeah. He is messed up. Grace doesn’t owe him a response, sorry.

While the other girls are talking, Kelsey mentions that she didn’t pack a swimsuit because she doesn’t like swimming, while Jo says Kelsey loves swimming, so another hint about Kelsey’s body image problems.

Daniel tries to call Grace and she declines the call, so then of course he immediately calls Kelsey. Oh my God, it IS messed up for him to do this. It’s so damn manipulative! (I know this all happened in Skam but we get to live this mess all over again, yayyyy.) And of course Kelsey is excited, but then he wants to talk to Grace. Ughhhh.

Daniel says Grace is messed up, and he knows what he’s doing is also messed up, but they had a deal. Oh my God. YOU NEVER OWE SOMEONE A FUCKING DATE. This is such a dangerous idea! You should always be able to back out of a romantic commitment! If Grace had been like “I will buy you something off the Taco Bell value menu if you apologize to Kelsey” and Daniel was calling Grace to be like “I want my fucking cheesy rice and bean burrito already” then I would find that more sympathetic than this. But dating is something you should NEVER have to set in stone, sorry, and I think this is where some of the split comes between Daniel/William defenders and his haters, because some people think a deal is a deal and some people (like me) think a date should not be ironclad under any circumstances. That mentality contributes to rape culture. (The disconnect between S2′s sexual assault storyline and William’s behavior is wild, tbh. But this is discourse that has been hashed out a million times already.)

Daniel whines that he apologized to Kelsey almost a year ago and that Grace made up an imaginary boyfriend so she didn’t have to hold up her end. No, actually Grace making up a fake boyfriend is what women do to get men off their backs because said men will not leave them alone and it’s a sad fact of life. Because men respect other men’s “claim” on their property (aka women) more than women’s ability to say no.

Daniel sounds like a goddamn serial killer when he’s all “just keep your word and go on a date with me.” Grace sounds downright defeated when she agrees. And of course when Grace hands the phone back to Kelsey, Daniel cancels on them for the beach house. Jesus, so we didn’t even get cute girl squad beach antics? Boooooo.

And actually, how shitty is it that he uninvited them to the beach house? I get that William uninvited them to the party, too, but that was just a party. These girls got packed and ready to drive several hours to a beach house, like imagine if they were on the road when Daniel called, or if they’d already spent money on gas and other stuff for a beach trip, or canceled other Spring Break plans with their families or friends to go hang out with these dudes. Beach house was a bigger time/money commitment for them than just a party, and he uninvited them (via a completely obvious lie that he took no effort to hide on social media) just because he got his date out of Grace. Selfish as hell, dude.

Jo complains that there’s too much girl juice happening and not enough sausage, and Megan is like, “You had sausage this morning.” Lmao. Literally all of these girls should embrace the “girl juice” because there is not a single viable male option so far. Nic from the newspaper seems nice but he’s bearding for Shay at the moment.

Good closing song, though (“Nail in My Coffin” by The Kills).

One of the best things about Skam Austin are the comments, and this clip did not disappoint. Some of the highest-rated comments were things like (paraphrased):

“Daniel is being manipulative”

“Grace doesn’t owe Daniel anything”

“you can see the fear in Grace’s eyes when she’s talking to Daniel on the phone, red flag”

“Daniel sounds like he’s threatening her life”

And my utter favorite comment from this clip, verbatim: “daniel reminds me of those guys in criminal minds who call people on the phone and tell them what to do otherwise someone they love will die - aka a creep lmao”

Social Media/General Comments:

I don’t know what the big holdup was with S2 - probably having to do with Julie’s departure - but it was a big mistake to wait so long, imo. I don’t think it was great for building fan momentum, although I notice that the first full episode of S2 has more views already than some of the episodes from last season that have been out for almost a year (not sure if Facebook was hyping this season or not like they did with the series premiere). They’ve also minimized time for future seasons. We can get Shay and Zoya seasons if they get one in for this fall and next spring, provided the show is renewed for those, obviously.

Anyway, Julie’s no longer the director. The director is Phillip J. Bartell, who has a pretty interesting track record: he was the editor on To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, Dear White People (both film and TV series), and G.B.F. Feels like a decent background for someone to take on Skam; he has experience with teen films and with more diverse fare than just straight white people. He also edited a shit ton of low-budget gay films, most notably the Eating Out series, including directing and writing Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds, and I have to include this excerpt from the Wikipedia plot synopsis: The five then start scheming to out Jacob, the closeted leader of the ex-gay ministry, to his mother by tricking him to have sex with Octavio, another member of the ministry, in a portable toilet on wheels. Jacob finally comes out to his mother (after he inadvertently ejaculates on her coat as his sexuality is revealed), and flees with Octavio.

I did get more of a traditional teen drama vibe from this episode, and I do already miss Julie’s style of filmmaking: it was one of the best things Skam Austin had going for it. However, I’m going to give the sloppy seconds guy a shot. Although admittedly, this season of all seasons is one where I’m most apprehensive about handing the material over to a male director, no matter his track record. (Then again, a woman created Noorhelm in the first place, soooooo.)

I feel like Skam Austin more than other remakes has a large percentage of the viewers who watch the whole episodes rather than the clips, or who don’t understand the real time structure (correct me if other remakes have drastically more viewers for the full episodes than the clips). Each clip is flooded with comments telling the show to make the episodes longer or asking where the rest of the episode is. Tbh I find that really interesting because no doubt Facebook wants Skam Austin to be the hip new way to consume media in real time (I mean, assuming you have not seen the original show) but a large portion of the audience does not want to consume the show this way, lmao. And a lot of them cannot figure out how to watch the show! I blame some of that on the confusing Facebook video format, like the original Skam website felt so clean and easy to follow compared to Facebook’s ... everything.

Prior to the season’s start, there was a lot of SM stuff that set up stuff for this season, such as Jo’s epic quest for the best cupcake, Daniel’s car, the Kitten scandal, Abby is dating some football dude who’s one of Daniel’s friends, etc.

They made a point of it being Daniel’s birthday and him turning 18, I wonder if that will be relevant to the plot at all? Because now he’s legally an adult. Maybe if he beats the crap out of someone, like with the Yakuza guys, it’ll matter because he’ll be charged as an adult vs as a juvenile.

Abby’s new football player boyfriend is named Hunter. He has his own Instagram. I’m not sure why so much focus on this guy? I have nothing against him, just not sure why he of all people has an Instagram, compared to like Poonam or another supporting character. Would he be the Niko character since we already know Daniel has a brother? I guess maybe Daniel could hypothetically get in a fight with him over some Yakuza dude? Will Hunter end up dating one of the girl squad instead of Abby? Or does he not have much of a role except to be another of Daniel and Pen Jo’s social circle, lol?

Some information from the Bouldin Beat Instagram:

Grace is a staff writer, Poonam is a researcher (???? do they mean copy editor? if she’s researching stuff wouldn’t she just be a staff writer since ... they all do research ...) and Nic is a cartoonist. And Poonam’s full name is Poonam Para, love me that alliteration. (There’s also a Sullivan Smith and a John Jackson.)

Poonam does write the advice column. She manages to include a reference to Frozen in at least one piece of advice, to no one’s surprise, lmao.

In between reminding students about the 2018 midterms and an active shooter drill, the newspaper took the time to do the most important piece of all, Who Knows Daniel Williamson The Best.

His favorite movie is Dumb and Dumber which is not so subtly a connection to Grace’s IG name (Mary Swanson is a character from that film). So either it’s a thing they genuinely have in common, or he’s been trying to get on Grace’s good side. Or I guess he stalked her, watched the movie, and legit enjoyed it as Isak did with Romeo + Juliet for Even.

Penetrator Jo knows Daniel the best out of those questioned. Hunter does not know Daniel that well. Foreshadowing? Hunter’s a fake friend?

There are lots of horoscopes but I don’t know how to connect them to the characters since I don’t think we know their birthdays.Oh, except Daniel’s a Pisces, but I don’t know if him being so sensitive and “feeling all the feels” fits his personality that well.

The girls took part in the climate strike on March 15 and I do like the show acknowledging youth activism. I’m not sure it’ll play a huge role in the show itself, although frankly it would be a huge missed opportunity to ignore #MeToo considering the content of this season (based on the original).

Meg posted a pic of her with Grace captioned “me and wifey” and I don’t even ship them compared to other Eva/Noora pairings, but that’s just cruel.

There’s a text message and it confused me at first because Daniel says he apologized to Kelsey, and my eyes had glazed over that it was from last June, at the end of season 1. We get a rare glimpse into older texts that happened during a prior season - usually don’t see that with Skams, letting us see what was happening when the previous POV character couldn’t see it.

Anyway, back in the day, Daniel invited Grace for a picnic, she called him a cliche, they bantered, but it seems like she was a little torn about not being into him. He told her he apologized to Kelsey. Eleven days later he asks about their date and Grace says she’s in Dallas all summer and he says that wasn’t part of the deal. She asks if he seriously needs a date as incentive for baseline human decency, GOD, THANK YOU. A Noora finally said it. (Or at this point, it might not be the only Noora who said this. I’m still elated that Grace did.)

In September he texts her “shame about that boyfriend” so either she had a real BF and broke up with him at some point, or she just lied about it. I think it’s possible she said she had someone in Dallas which would be an easy way to keep up the lie. The “my girlfriend who lives in Canada” of Texas. And so that brings us up to now, where he notes she got caught and asks her out again. Daniel, fucking LISTEN to what she said about baseline human decency.

The girls’ group chat is Los Losers, an obvious reference to OG Skam’s girl squad. I got nostalgic as hell reading that, it was a sweet gesture.

I mentioned above that they didn’t stage the actual concert from Clout, which on a practical level I completely understand. But in-universe, it’s pretty far-fetched that there were no concert pics or videos from any of the characters on social media. I guess one of the hazards of Skam’s realism and social media format is that sometimes realism is too expensive to film, lol.

Daniel, Pen Jo, and their crew were all about the beach/spring break selfies this week so LMAO at how people were expecting the girl squad to chill at the beach later and just … that didn’t pan out.

Instead of going to the boys’ beach house, the girls did sheet masks, which is way more fun and also yields terrifying pictures.

If you got this far, thank you for reading!

#skam austin reactions #skamus reactions

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legendary-nerds · 6 years

Text

right hand man

a half-baked plance fic idea from yours truly

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

basically, the idea is that after the paladins fought sendak, somewhere near the end of the battle (i’ll explain how in a second, i promise) pidge loses an arm. she’s okay, for the most part, but until the garrison can get her a prosthetic with a hand capable of what pidge needs to do (coding, close/mid range combat, video games) she needs help. she finds that help in lance, who is just trying his best.

basically, when keith killed sendak, his prosthetic wasn’t quite out of power yet. so it was basically twitching and moving on it’s own while sendak’s corpse was following the stages of decay. morbid? yeah. but stay with me.

essentially, after the battle, pidge and some garrison techs took sendak’s body to the lab to ‘turn off’ the galran arm and study it.

it didn’t go well.

pidge what happened in the moments before.

sendak’s arm glowing bright purple and swinging around in attack mode. the screams from the poor garrison kids tasked with helping her out. her own screams as the glowing hand sliced though her bicep.

from there, it was a blur. she could remember the cold linoleum floor, and someone screaming her name as they picked her up from the same cold linoleum and ran for the nearest health bay.

there was a lot of blood.

when she came to, she was alone.

a nurse came in as soon as it was known that she was up again, of course. but when pidge reached for the hospital grade cup of orange juice, her arm didn’t move with her.

when she looked to her right side, all she could do was start to cry because there is no limb there and she could’ve sworn there was a limb there when she went to sleep, what happened?

shiro came in soon after to let her know what went down, and pidge didn’t stop crying until her family showed up.

together the holts and shiro helped pidge through her shock until she could calm down a little bit. because hey, she was one limb short, but she was alive. and it never stopped shiro, right?

after the shock, she realized that having one arm sucked.

she needs help getting used to everything, but she hates asking for it. her family is usually around, and she knows that they want to help, but she can’t do anything, and it makes her feel helpless for the first time in a while.

hunk tries to cheer her up with actual earth food, but it just reminds her that she can’t use utensils with her non-dominant hand. she almost feels bad for how much time hunk’s spending with her, since he could be with shay.

she asks him to cut her food, and it’s embarrassing, but with hunk it’s a little less embarrassing.

hunk and shay sometimes visit together and they’re so sweet pidge thinks she’s gonna stay in the hospital when she gets type 2 diabetes from these nerds.

shiro takes off his new, shiny, altean arm when he’s with her (to show solidarity) and just kind of hangs out with her in between atlas meetings. pidge likes spending time with shiro a lot, it feels just as natural as before. they talk a lot about pet peeves,

“everyone looks at where your arm was like if they stare hard enough, they can grow it back for you.”

“ugh i know! like, they mean well, but god, thanks for the reminder buddy! i’d wave if my hand wasn’t busy!”

their morbid jokes really unsettle the nurses but it feels good for pidge to laugh.

keith doesn’t say much but he just hangs out and watches tv with her. it’s all pidge wants really. hanging out with keith is normal, until he remembers the situation. then it’s just funny.

while you’d think he’d be a natural, he wasn’t around to help shiro adjust since he was, you know, on a galra ship.

one time pidge woke up to keith swiping his hand under her stump, almost to verify that the limb wasn’t there and it was the funniest goddamn thing pidge had ever seen. he was so stunned.

keith is trying his best, and pidge loves him for it.

allura and coran stop in all the time to give her updates on her new hand, but it’s taking longer than expected.

allura likes to help pidge do her hair or paint her nails, and one time without thinking, she asked if pidge would get manicures at half price.

pidge pointed out that she doesn’t really want to get manicures from anyone but allura, and the princess’s smile was a mile wide. it made pidge feel all warm to know that allura was happy.

she doesn’t really see anything wrong with pidge’s unpredicted amputation.

coran keeps trying to encourage a balmera to “grow number 5 a crystal!” for her new altean arm but shay has to remind him it doesn’t work like that, and just because he rubs the balmera’s surface doesn’t make it work faster. it’s a valiant effort though, and coran always assures pidge that she’ll have a new, better arm “in a jiffy”.

and then there’s lance.

pidge and lance were used to hanging out before, but ever since pidge lost her arm, there’s been a rift. they hang out in pidge’s hospital room all the time, and he’s always okay getting pidge junk food from the vending machine by the receptionist’s desk, but something’s off.

pidge eventually asks him what’s wrong.

“it’s weird, i guess?”

“lance, that’s the dumbest shit i’ve ever heard. why are you acting like me without an arm is weird?”

“because i’m pretty much the only reason you don’t have your dominant hand anymore!”

“lance, that’s even more dumb. what on earth are you talking about?”

“i saw sendak’s arm start to flip out. i saw it start to glow but you weren’t looking, and my keycard wasn’t fast enough so i couldn’t get in, and the techs were screaming, and i could’ve stopped this whole thing but i wasn’t in time.”

“you were the one who carried me to the emergency room, right?”

“the one and only.”

“god, lance. thank you so much. i’d be much worse off if i had died, you know.”

it ends with a hug. pidge wants so badly to wrap her arms around him, but all she can do is melt into lance and cling onto the back of his jacket while he holds her.

when pidge gets home from the hospital and takes off her bandages, she can’t look at her stump. it’s scarred, and it looks mangled. she’s cut off her hair and she started dressing in cargo shorts and been through hell, but she’s never felt less pretty than in this moment.

the garrison standard issue homes assigned to the paladins families are in a cul de sac, so lance spends a lot of time at pidge’s house.

they play video games, but when lance puts in a street fighter type game they’re only allowed to use long range attacks (since pidge can’t use a joystick)

they also play fireboy and watergirl together.

“you know, i used to be both fireboy AND watergirl because it was challenging.”

“no, i’m pretty sure you played both because you were a massive nerd.”

“rude.”

“you’re my favourite nerd, pidgeon. don’t get mad.”

over time they start to grow more and more attached to each other, romantic-styles.

there’s a lot of cuddling.

one time pidge tried to throw her arm over his chest but she just forgot that she couldn’t.

“thanks pidge, i get the idea.”

“you know, my phantom limb is pinching your nipple right now.”

there’s also a lot of pidge whipping her long sleeves around like a whip as an attack since she doesn’t fill it out anymore.

they recreate the “don’t fuck with me! i have the power of goD and ANIME ON MY SIDE!” vine with pidge flailing the sleeve of lance’s jacket around

it makes matt cry laughing before he gives lance the “so you’re dating my sister” talk.

life is good. lance is never too far behind when they go places, in case pidge is put off balance or needs help with something.

one time pidge started playing “every step you take” by the police because lance was almost stalker-ish with how he was watching her to make sure she was okay.

“rude, pidge. rude. maybe i should let you fall down the stairs when you can’t grab a banister.”

lance is also acutely aware of how pidge’s scar tissue affects her self image, so he does constantly tell her she’s beautiful. especially if she wears a tank top of something that doesn’t hide her stump. it works too, because one day she looks in the mirror and finds it less ugly than she did.

when pidge’s arm is complete, shiro’s a little jealous.

it’s all white, with hints of green that match her paladin armor. the crystal that the balmera produced is also green, thanks to shay being extra and wanting to make pidge happy. it has a super acute wrist joint and finger joints so pidge can type at lightning speeds, and it’s easy to get on and off. lance watches her when she opens it, and plants a kiss on her forehead because his girlfriend is ADORABLE looking at her new hand, okay?

“so pidge, i guess you won’t need me around anymore now that you’re back in action.”

“oh please. i’m always gonna need my right hand man.”

YOU MADE IT TO THE END!!! CONGRATS!!! thank you to @justpidgance for motivating me to post this, she’s partially responsible ladies and gents. it’s just a cute lil thing i had floating around. thanks, drive home safe, wear your seatbelts.

#plance #pidgance #seasalt #rainforest #fuckplant #pidge x lance #oh shoot emma wrote something uwu

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etjwrites · 5 years

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Tedenbarr of Have Lath

Hello Writeblr Community! I guess I've never really introduced myself or my writing, so here we go!

I'm Esther T. Jones, I'm in my midlate-20's, I love cosplay, gardening, and music, (I studied classical & jazz flute and piano in college) and I’ve written one two novels! A third is on the way!

The first novel is called “Tedenbarr of Have Lath,” is aimed at Upper Middle Grade/Young Adult Readers, and has all the classic elements from a medieval adventure story. (Official Summary.)

You want swordfights? Got 'em. Bandits? Got those too. Knights? Yep! Pirates? A driving force. Kings and nobles, and common folk and slaves? Castles and Dungeons? Secrets and Betrayal? PLOT TWISTS!? All. Right. Here. And of course, horses. All the horses!

Let me tell you about some of the characters:

Tedenbarr (Teddy) – the titular hero. Blond, blue eyed, 20 years old at the start of our story. He lives on an island of slaves named Have Lath, and is desperately in love with a free woman. Despite having reached almost to adulthood, he can be painfully naïve and tends to live in the epic poetic saga of his world that he has memorised line for line. He also loves animals.

Keira (Pronounced Kay-ee-rah) – Curly red hair, green eyes, speaks in a rich brogue. Tedenbarr's fiancée; secretly of course, her aunt would never approve of her marrying a slave boy. About 19. Her father disappeared on one of his travels and never returned. When Tedenbarr also disappears during a routine voyage, amidst rumours that the Black Sailed Pirates have returned to the Sheana Sea, she fears the worst.

Lach – A boy of about 15/16, he is Tedenbarr's best friend on “The Sailing Prison.” Together they work to escape the pirates boarding the ship, but get separated, and Tedenbarr alone makes it to the shores of the Eastern Kingdom. His face, along with all those who went down with the ship, plagues Tedenbarr at night.

Black Crow – Leader of the notorious bandit group living in the Linkwood Forest. Tedenbarr encounters his second in command, and right hand man – Light-Fingers (also known as Amiri of Caro) – in a series of events that take place before our story starts (detailed in chapter five in a flashback).

Shai Ten – Leader of the Resistance in the capital city of Aistes. He hails from one of the desert tribes in the Eastern Kingdom. After his cousin sold herself into slavery to buy them food for a year, and subsequently died an untimely death, he threw himself into the makings of an uprising to try and better the lives of the citizens of Aistes.

King Elymas Oglath – Feared by many, hated by most, loved by none. The sole remaining member of the Oglath family after the deaths of his brother and nephew, he rules with an iron fist. His most recent headache is the return of the Black Sailed Pirates, thirsty for revenge because he drove them out of the Sheana Sea 15 years ago on charges that they murdered his nephew.

The Pirates – a terrifying menace, no ship in the King's Navy can outrun them, and they aim to sail up and down the coastlines of the Sheana sea, leaving destruction and ruin wherever they go. Their ace in the hole is their ability to set the sea on fire, hence the burning cutlasses emblazoned on their black flags and sails. Their ship is named Fraecana, after the spectral goddess of the underworld that many people in Tedenbarr's world believe in.

There are many more characters, but those are the figures that are a constant during Tedenbarr's travels, either at the forefront as he interacts with people, or in his thoughts, or as a looming presence in the background.

Tedenbarr's world is filled with people who believe that there are greater forces at work, and though Tedenbarr himself doesn't put too much stock in the fables and legends that he can recite by heart, here is a little bit of what people believe:

The goddess Myrna rules the sea, Fraecana the underworld. Ferra is a demigod, a trickster and fleet of foot, always getting himself and mortals into trouble. The clashes between himself and Agon – the heroic human king at the centre of the Agon cycle – are legendary. Shirye is the patron god of forests and hunters.

Shrines exist all across the Kingdom of the West. They are dark, unpleasant places, thick with incense, and attended by greedy cultists who delight in swindling poor superstitious people out of what little money they have. Lach's mother fell victim to one such scheme.

Let's talk places!

Aistes – Capital city of the Kingdom of the West. Currently hiding a long forgotten secret, and the centre of what promises to be a bloody civil war between rich free-folk and poor slaves/servants.

Cal-Cah Mountains – an imposing mountain range in the Kingdom of the East that is very dangerous to navigate due to the bandits that often waylay merchant caravans and lone travellers.

Dirca Desert – a hot, dry expanse that marks the borders between the Kingdoms of East and West. Also inhabited by bandits, and very easy to get lost in.

Dolphin Bay – a secluded little retreat close to the major villages of Slern and Bajai. It's also the first place that Tedenbarr dares to think he could be more than a slave.

Have Lath – Tedenbarr's home. Only outcasts, soldiers and their families, and slaves live here. The island helps protect the mainland from the savage storms of the North Seas.

Linkwood Forest – the domain of yet another band of outlaws, wanted throughout the Western kingdom for crimes against the House of Jor, and against the Monarchy. Not even travelling along the King's Highway is safe anymore with those rapscallions lurking behind every tree and shrub.

Old A'an – a fabled, long abandoned underground city where an ancient civilization used to live. Tedenbarr has always dreamed of visiting, but no one he knows has an inkling of where Old A'an might be located.

Sarenji – a major port town, and one the Black Sailed Pirates have their eye on after attacking Tedenbarr's cargo ship.

Slvyn Reigh – a minor point of interest in the middle of the Sheana Sea. Legend has it that Agon once went head-to-head with the sea goddess Myrna in a fierce but good spirited competition atop a small, stony island, and the peculiar rock formation is all that now remains.

Whew! That was a lot! Please enjoy perusing the moodboard (which also contains some out of context spoilers – I'll leave it to you to figure out what they are). Let me know if you would like to see a more detailed breakdown of some of the main characters, as well as the many secondary and even minor characters that I didn't mention here. Tedenbarr of Have Lath is available from Amazon in both paperback and ebook form (do you have Kindle Unlimited? Congrats, Tedenbarr of Have Lath is now yours, free!) and I'd be more than thrilled to answer any questions you want to shoot my way! This story is my baby, and I love talking to readers about it!

#writeblr #moodboard #amwriting #bookblr #tedenbarr of have lath #tedenbarr #etjwrites #reblogs appreciated!#ya

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